it. was. the verdict is in army private bradley manning is found not guilty of aiding the enemy that charge carried a potential life sentence or even the death penalty however many will not be a free man anytime soon from the guilty charges handed down to the legal challenges he now faces and what today's verdict means for potential whistleblowers we'll bring it all to you in our live team coverage of the bradley manning trial coming up next. though there it's tuesday july thirtieth four pm here in washington d.c. i'm marinate and you're watching our t.v. . our lead story today the verdict in the bradley manning trial a military court has found army private bradley manning accused of the largest leak

of classified information in u.s. history not guilty of aiding the enemy now the aiding the enemy charge would have carried a maximum sentence of life in prison manning was however found guilty of most of the remaining charges against him including five charges of espionage five counts of theft and four counts of investment bradley manning's family just released a statement on the verdict to the guardian it says while we're obviously disappointed in today's verdict we are happy that judge lynn agreed with us that brad never intended to help america's enemies in any way brad loves his country and was proud to wear its uniform our t. has been covering the trial from the very beginning and i spoke with r.t. web producer andrew blake live from fort meade maryland i asked him if he could tell us what the reaction and mood were like once the verdict was read. relief relief everywhere relief from the journalists the handful of journalists who have been here for nineteen months relief from the spectators who drove hundreds of miles all night to be here for what was actually only

a three minute long court hearing more or less colonel denise lynn took the stand just after one o'clock today she will add through the twenty or so that private manning has been charged with and then said i they're not guilty or guilty the first charge that she read was the aiding the enemy charge the most serious of them that could've sent manning a life sentence and the moment that she took the stand and said not guilty in the media center at least people just kind of didn't even know how to react but then but then sure enough you know a second later she started going through the other you know twenty one or so counts and at this point private manning could still face up to one hundred thirty six years in prison he has been convicted on almost all of the counts that he faces except for aiding the enemy but anyways yes people are very relieved that this is over at least it is to release with regards to where it is right now we're kind of in the homestretch here we're going to enter the sentencing phase in which point we expect testimonies from around forty different witnesses who are going to go up and actually talk about private manning's intent his motive what he wanted to do when

he got to make that little connection with wiki leaks a few years back now aside from relief the only other emotion that was really prevailing here today was absolute frustration i'd be happy susan on behalf of the media dozens and dozens of members of the media the international media from around the world were here and for me this afternoon for the verdict yet when the verdict was announced the internet at the base died people were not allowed to have phones are not allowed to have wi-fi hotspots so pretty much any journalist who was here which aren't many but enough for today were unable to file reports in a timely matter kind of caused a really big. what have you over here at fort meade but this is about a trial that's been trotted in secrecy throughout for the last three years so. to say that it was unexpected would be a lie i suppose it's all right now andrew bradley manning was acquitted of the most serious charge like you said the aiding the enemy charge but he was found guilty of

nineteen lesser charges you mentioned before but can you talk more about what those charges are. they're basically a bunch of counts relating to either espionage or computer fraud. most of the trial and frankly the boring us parts of the trial the most boring parts we're hearing about how private manning pretty much took his ability as a very smart army intelligence analyst who knew how to use computers and harness that in order to get this information out private manning had the necessary permissions to access most of the information that he was accused of leaking to wiki leaks however how we actually got that material prompted the government to file a number of computer fraud and abuse charges against him now also in addition to aiding the enemy which we said is now off his plate the government has accused him and now charged him and convicted him of espionage multiple counts of espionage

which sets a pretty alarming precedent for journalists for the media for democracy in general is nowhere near as terrible as if it would have been a guilty conviction of aiding the enemy but these ask the charges are very serious counts and if sentenced to. largest the lengthiest term possible private manning could spend one hundred thirty six years in prison meanwhile he was found not guilty of espionage like you said for releasing the collateral murder video can you explain this a little further please. now out of all the material that private manning willingly admitted to leaking to wiki leaks that's the guantanamo be a teeny to sesame briefs state department diplomatic cables the collateral murder video another era. video hundreds and thousands of very sensitive military files now out of all of those collateral murder is perhaps the most well known and with good reason private manning found footage of u.s. soldiers firing and killing civilians journalists and civilians from from high in

the sky just gunning them down private manning saw that he wanted the rest of the world to see that the thing about that footage though is that it wasn't top secret this wasn't this wasn't something that was highly sensitive it actually had been out there a very successful journalist had found a copy of it himself and wrote about it in a book that was published around the world so the government you know chose to let manning off a little easy on that one but you know like we were saying it is still possible hundred thirty six years maximum sentence based off of the other convictions and what was bradley manning's reaction today. i spoke to someone actually who was sitting quite near him in the courtroom this afternoon and i spoke to her mediately after the verdict and i said what was brad like but what did bread do and she said that the moment that they read the not guilty verdict for aiding the enemy bradley and his civilian defense attorney david

coombs both got a little smile across their face and when this person the spectator told me this neither of us really knew how to react and you know gone to this court many times i've sat directly behind manning a couple of times i bumped into him in the hall here in fort meade and this is you know someone whose life was literally hanging in the balance with this one count now yes he could spend the rest of his life in prison but the fact that they let him off of the most serious of charges is definitely something that everyone obviously the defense and the spectators the civilian spectators the supporters everyone was quite relieved to hear including private manning of course. thank you for that report and that was our web producer andrew blake. our team has been. following brother a man in from the very beginning and we have been bringing you all the latest developments throughout the trial r.t. correspondent liz wahl has been outside the courthouse at fort meade almost every

day since the trial got underway but the saga of bradley manning started way before the current court martial began in june here's liz wall with a look back at the key events. he enlisted in the military in two thousand and seven bradley manning was a private first class from the second brigade combat team he was deployed to a base near baghdad iraq to work as an intelligence analyst it was here in may two thousand and ten that he was arrested for leaking hundreds of thousands of classified documents to the anti secrecy website wiki leaks among them iraq and afghanistan war logs and videos guantanamo bay detainee assessments and diplomatic cables the government filed twenty one charges against him total the most serious charge aiding the enemy a rare charge that carries a life sentence with no chance of parole it would be nearly three years before he would have his day in court and for meade maryland and february two thousand and thirteen he pleaded guilty to ten of the lesser charges and made into leaking the

information to wiki leaks the court martial began on june third the prosecution called up dozens of witnesses over the span of six weeks to prove that manning aided the enemy when he sent over seven hundred thousand classified documents to wiki leaks according to the government manning should have known that by doing so al qaeda and their affiliates would have seen the information they said he did it all because he was craving fame and notoriety they also tried to prove that manning was conspiring with julian the saudis the founder of wiki leaks in an effort to get as much u.s. government secrets on the internet as possible the defense's case was much quicker wrapping up on the third day and they showed this video the now infamous video dubbed collateral murder that manning leaked it shows an apache helicopter firing down on civilians on the ground in iraq manning's attorney david coombs tried to characterize manning as a whistleblower

a young man that was troubled by what he saw and wanted to bring the truth to the public and spark a national debate. on. after three months of trial the judge alone delivered the verdict judge colonel denise lind found him not guilty of aiding the enemy but guilty of most of the other charges even though he was acquitted of the most serious charge he still faces over one hundred years for the last or charges a judge will determine that part of his fate during sentencing in washington liz wall r t u. j's final judgment in the bradley manning trial brings up a lot of questions both for the army private and the country here to walk us through the legal ramifications of today's verdict is colonel morris davis colonel davis is a professor of law at howard university and the former lead prosecutor a quantum obey and an expert witness who testified in the manning trial thanks for being here with us today really appreciate your insights now first off what is this

verdict about beyond just bradley manning well i think you know it's critically important to him certainly but i think also it's important for a number of other factors as well the military justice system which has really taken a beating over the last several months over the sexual assault problem so i think today was an opportunity to show that military justice can work so you know good on judge lynn and for i think doing the right thing here i think does help rehabilitate the image of military justice i think is a statement about her whether this is going to be a judgment based on courage or compliance and it looks like an act of courage on on her part i think it's a statement too about the obama administration's war own leaks and the public finding out about what its government is doing so i think in that respect it's probably a loss for them the bradley manning didn't become the scapegoat they would like for him the right now christian harston it hussies me want to get this name right hofner ha ha clinton sorry question if you're hearing this is

a spokesman for wiki leaks and he spoke to our g earlier today and let's take a look at what he had to say. he's. used to facing a long time in prison especially when you think about how this trial has been carried out by judge lindh one is not filled with any optimism only last week. to load the prosecution to change so what the charge is on the laws to the trial now do you agree with what we've seen from lens points from what we've seen from what if it points to manning receiving a longer sentence or not well it'll be as a he's facing and it sounds terrible hundred thirty or maximum and again that's the maximum frequent represented clients it can add up quickly like one drug deals fifteen years so ten of those bikes one hundred fifty three main that's what you're going to get so one thirty is the max i expect mr coombs the defense counsel to

follow a motion to treat some of those offenses as being multiplicity even though there are two charges there one course of conduct so they should be punished as a single of them so one thirty is the upper limit probably looking at something if i was to bet and i don't bet on bad at guessing but probably something in the twenty to twenty five year range is probably what i would be looking for ok now what does the defense do now will they appeal the guilty verdict for espionage or and doesn't answer other other words that come up i'm sure they will have nothing to lose there after that these sentences and now i'm assuming sometime probably next week the trial phase and then it goes into the appellate review process which is a four step process it'll first go to the convening authority and it will go to the army court of criminal appeals then to the court of appeals for the armed forces went to the five judge civilian panel here in d.c. and then potentially the supreme court so what we're looking at is probably another

three to five years of litigation where these issues will be litigated for manning things can stay as is org. it better they can't get worse select the aiding the enemy charge can be brought back against him so. if i was him i would fight it tooth and nail at every step and you know try to make a better situation out of it like you said nothing to lose now any insight into how judge denise and how she came to her legal decision in your state has come out of all that for so yeah i would have preferred that she grant the motion last week to dismiss the aiding the enemy charge saying this offense is not a legitimate offense and should be dismissed outright but she let it go forward and today she said the government's evidence didn't meet the beyond a reasonable doubt standard so you know it's kind of a mixed bag of them certainly play she didn't convict him of aiding the enemy but i would have preferred that she had dismissed the charge outright so what we wound up

is you know she said the government cleared the low the low hurdle but didn't clear the high hurdle which for private manning it's the same result but for other people for the other potential leakers or journalists and you know it's still kind of hanging there in limbo where i would prefer just of seeing it dismissed right now there's been some speculation that judge lindh could be promoted to the court of appeals like us is and if that were to happen would that mean that she would be in charge of seen the appeals case. and let me say to promote a military standpoint moving from being a trial judge to the appellate court is not a promotion i mean she'll still be a colonel and still is a good job but is really a lateral i mean in the military you normally stay in an assignment for you know one to three years and then you move to another sign like me when i was stationed here in d.c. and my last five years i had three different jobs so her moving to the court is not a reward or a punishment is just

a lateral move there are at least ten or twelve judges on the appellate court and they sit in three judge panel so sure will be disk. qualified from being on you having any involvement. in the case will be a different group of army appellate judges that will hear private manning scase and so that her involvement and when she announces a sentence now even without the aiding the enemy charges you talked about there's a little bit of manny he's still going to face more than one hundred years behind bars can you now expand on what happens with the sentencing phase the court martial this gives you the most military things are there's no easy answer to the question there's a voluminous army regulation people can go out to google and type in army confinement and they'll find the regulation that lays out everything from how many pairs of socks you can have to how you calculate how much time you've served assuming he gets a say twenty years just as an example twenty years typically

a quake to something in the ten to twelve year range now in addition he'll get credit for the time he's already been in confinement it's the extra credit for the period the judge lynn said he was mistreated so you're probably knocking four years off to begin with then you get good time credit if you behave yourself you get ten days a month off if you take college courses you get some more and then after you sort of the third you're eligible for parole so assuming it manning is sentenced to twenty years he's probably looking at another i would say you know eight to ten at most before probably looking at maybe early thirty's when people are actually out on the streets well thank you for your insight we always appreciate sure to have you here that was colonel morris davis professor of law at howard university now it's been more than three years since wiki leaks released a video known as collateral murder and today a judge colonel denise lynn acquitted bradley manning of one count of the espionage act for leaking the video to anti secrecy organization. the

video was prominently featured during the trial of being repeatedly played throughout the court martial and it's a video that highlighted the brutality of the iraq war showing a u.s. apache helicopter crew shooting at a group of iraqi civilians and a writer reuters journalists on the ground even mccord was among the soldiers on the ground who lived to see to see the killings and today ethan is out of the army and a big man in supporter archies vegan lopez recently traveled to wichita kansas to talk with ethan mccord and here's the story board walk by the way it was the video that put wiki leaks on the map turned the tide of war in iraq and landed private first class bradley manning in military detention but for army veteran ethan mccord it was just another day on duty the helicopters are approximately about a mile and a half away. when they resume. and from looking at it now

you can't see anything. that right there is obviously a camera dangling. if you were to really pay attention. that guy has a k forty seven right there baghdad iraq two thousand and seven two hundred sixteenth battalion was out patrolling a volatile part of the city i was about five blocks away four or five blocks away to the. to the left of the screen this was a battalion wide mission and then the situation turned deadly. we heard the apaches firing. ethan and his infantry squad began running toward the scene to provide support again the apache helicopter opened fire. when he arrived on the scene the apache guns were quiet the accused enemies were dead. one guy's head the top of his head was completely and the brains were. were on the ground and the smell. the smell still

haunts me to the it i don't even know how to describe it when he approached the van a noise ethan wasn't expecting a cry of a little girl and she was four years old. you could tell she had a wound to the stomach and. i remember looking at me in the blood around her eyes made her eyes so ghostly why i even grabbed a girl and ran into a nearby building even takes glass out of her eyes so she could blink and handed her off to a medic i went back outside and. was told to take pictures so i started taking pictures of the inside of the van and that's when he discovered the little boy and that's me. that is a little boy who i originally thought was dead despite their injuries the children survived but part of eason changed forever that day i couldn't stop myself from

crying i couldn't stop myself from feeling the way that i was feeling when he did seek mental help he says he was mocked by his commanders and threatened with expulsion from the military so i started drinking and metal had to give me prescriptions thirteen prescriptions. geodon depakote. prozac and i was i was a zombie but things got worse i started daydreaming of killing my own children and and everybody around me so even took matters into his own hands i'd already began drinking pretty heavily and. i had downed all the pills and i drank a fifth of crown royal ten o'clock in the morning. and

my wife at the time found me that was the first time ethan tried to take his own life after that he was dismissed from the army i was kicked out with no disability . no benefits from the army was when he returned to wichita and then even attempted suicide for a second time i actually wrote a poem right before i did. and. i don't know if i really want to talk about. these then story is tragic yes but he certainly isn't alone tens of thousands of military veterans suffer the effects of p.t.s.d. long after they leave the battlefield and for the also simply can't cope with the stress often times they choose to end their own lives their fathers and brothers sons and soldiers and now there are simply another times we'll see an american wars abroad in the past two years alone ethan has lost eight of his veteran brothers to

suicide and his outlook on life hasn't improved with time i know that i will never ever ever get better i'll never get over this for the world the collateral murder video was just another black mark on an unpopular war for ethan it was a catalyst that made him question the entire purpose of the iraq war you know america. john wayne you know we were the white house americans are always out well we're going to try to help people that's all we do is try to spread freedom and democracy the barrel of a gun history will be the ultimate determinant of how the iraq war is viewed but for ethan and so many soldiers suffering from post war stress the future is far and the past is too much to cope with reporting from wichita kansas meghan lopez r.t. . one of bradley manning's most visible supporters clark stickley was banned from

the trial last friday after judge lynn said someone posted threatening comments online into the prosecution strictly as a college art instructor from new jersey and attended the court martial as a sketch artist arriving each day in a white truck with the words wiki leaks top secret mobile information collection unit painted on the side now a tweet last thursday night from stephanie's account said i don't know how you sleep at night but i do know where he released the addresses of the of the location where the prosecutors could be found it was removed on friday now clark joins me here in studio to talk about his time at fort meade welcome i think you it's good to have you here now clarke how did you get your hands on the addresses of the prosecution oh i can't reveal my sources but it was through hearsay and i had never confirmed that information until i was banned from the courtroom and the base as well but the information i know went through several people and eventually ended up in my lap and it was not information that i was seeking it was not information i

went and confirmed i've never seen the prosecution outside of the courtroom i also have never been to the hotel where i believe they were staying i tweeted that on thursday night i came to the court on friday and i spent half the day sitting in the jury box drawing the proceedings half way through the day military m.p.'s took me out and said i was banned i appealed the decision with a letter to the judge lynn she forwarded that to the base commander and he refused to let me back on base. i can tell you this that the originator of this information was major ashton find the lead prosecutor. through communication he let strangers know where he was staying in and that he was the lead prosecutor. in this very big and important case where it comes to mind is why is the prosecution

in this case staying in a hotel off base i think that's absurd. it doesn't matter if you're a supporter of manning or not this is not a good protocol for. action fine the sensually create a security breach. i reported on it and you know and that's essentially kind of what wiki leaks has done similar really. you know i will always stand by my my sources but but i do know that ashton was the source originally now by releasing the address of the location of the prosecution were you trying to intimidate the prosecution no my intention wasn't to intimidate i'm a prankster i mean artists and activists and and i know that when i tweet the government sees a soon as the public and i tweeted kind of cryptically. it was

a situation that they needed to address i could've done anonymously i could've done something threatening but that wasn't my intention my intention it was to point out that action fine who is been braiding bradley manning for four months now for his lack of information assurance for allowing this information to go out into the public i think it's absolutely absurd that someone a very visible supporter of bradley manning and wiki leaks i drive a big box truck with the wiki leaks logo on it as coming across this information and you know i also feel that they've overreached in banning me from the base. in the nonviolent very peaceful person actually all of the bradley manning supporters i've ever met are very kind gentle and peaceful people and we thank you for being here today appreciate your still thank you so much that was artist activist and author. that does it for now for more on the stories we covered

in today's show you can go to youtube dot com for its last r.t. america and check out our website r g dot com forward slash usa you can also follow me on twitter at aaron aides stay tune prime interest is next. i would rather ask questions of people in positions of power instead of speaking on their behalf and that's why you can find my show larry king now right here on our t.v. question more. you

know sometimes you see a story and it seems so for lengthly you think you understand it and then you glimpse something else and you hear or see some other part of it and realize everything you thought you knew you don't know i'm sorry welcome to the big picture . isn't talking about the same story doesn't make it news. no pocky says the tough questions.

that afternoon and welcome to private interests i'm harry i'm boring and i bought a big glitch let's get serious today's headline. it's official what bitcoins are under intense scrutiny and thailand the central the central bank of the former kingdom of siam said big points are not a currency and the nation of the legal infrastructure at which includes capital controls simply does not have a place for big coins so it's illegal for tie residents to buy sell or trade the crypto non currency and this is true in the tri authorities said that coins cannot be moved into or out of the country rendering any current stockpiles worthless just contemplate that for a moment apparently alaska senator ted stevens internet tube simply don't exist in thailand which you would think renders the entire argument.